How to be a good client

How to be a good client

We live in a world of ratings. You can choose your hotel, restaurant, car, and designer based on ratings from previous visitors, drivers, or clients. But what about you? Customers don’t get five star ratings for every time they push in their seat after eating. Here are some tips to make your time as an interior design client, easier for the designer and thus making the entire experience more enjoyable and less stressful.

Be Organized:

Find and organize ideas – We appreciate it when you give us help, if you have images that inspire you and you would like us to see them, please keep them organized. There are great websites out there like Houzz and Pinterest that make organizing inspiration a piece of cake.

Find materials from local vendors – Three Week Kitchens loves using local materials and vendors, it helps the local economy grow and reduces time and prices. If you know of any local vendors that you support and would like to use in your project please let us know!

Create a schedule – If you are going out of town or have a specific schedule you need us to attend to, we need to know that information. If you would like certain things to be done by a certain time, for example if you are having your in-laws over for Christmas and need the kitchen done before then, it would help both parties to be aware.

Keep track of important information – Contact information, log in information, and other related things are integral cogs in the design process, if you don’t know them, little things take much longer than needed.

Be Communicative:

Talk to us – If there is a problem with a design or a contractor or anything else, we need to know these issues in order to fix them

Respond in a timely fashion- We understand you don’t want to be writing emails at the break of dawn, we don’t either. Just remember that responding as soon as you can helps the process go smoother

Seek an ongoing relationship- We strive to create a solid relationship with all of our clients. We love it when you love your new kitchen so much that you refer a neighbor or friend to us and clients love it when even post contract we are there to help you.

Make a contact list – Know the names and numbers of the staff working on your project, it makes everything much easier than saying, “that blonde guy, do you have his number?”

Be Respectful:

Pay in a timely fashion – Make sure you are aware of the payment schedule and stick to that schedule. Many people worked hard to complete your project and we prefer not to beg for payment

Allow us to do our job – Yes we understand that we are dealing with your home, however you’ve hired us to help and we do possess the talent and skill to do the job well. Please don’t second guess all of our decisions.

Give credit where credit is due – When we spend hours thinking on the best possible solution to your design problem, we like to know that you respect our time we’ve spent making your space as beautiful and functional as possible.

Help us to help you – Clearly express your expectations with the job. If we are doing something we did not discuss, please let us know you have an issue. We would much rather fix it then and there, than having an unsatisfied client.

The Debra Toney and Three Week Kitchen team appreciates your decision to choose us as your designer. Thank you! Clients like you make everything possible.